Feeling blue during the holidays doesn’t mean you’re broken. In this opening episode of Beating the Holiday Blues, Dr. Ray Calabrese explores why sadness often rises during the season—and why that’s completely human. Through music, poetry, and psychology, this episode offers reassurance, permission, and gentle hope for anyone feeling emotionally out of step with holiday cheer.
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Counting sheep is outdated. Try counting Satie’s notes instead—your brain will nod off mid-measure.
Listening to slow-tempo classical music before bed improves sleep quality. A Journal of Advanced Nursing (2008) study showed that relaxing classical music significantly improved sleep in older adults with sleep disorders. Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 is a gentle lullaby for grown-ups who need rest without racing thoughts.
Why it works: With slow pacing and space between notes, it eases the brain into pre-sleep theta states.
“When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable.”― Jess C. Scott
The world’s a very happy place,
Where every child should dance and sing,
And always have a smiling face,
And never sulk for anything.
I waken when the morning’s come,
And feel the air and light alive
With strange sweet music like the hum
Of bees about their busy hive.
The linnets play among the leaves
At hide-and-seek, and chirp and sing;
While, flashing to and from the eaves,
The swallows twitter on the wing.
The twigs that shake, and boughs that sway;
And tall old trees you could not climb;
And winds that come, but cannot stay,
Are singing gaily all the time.
From dawn to dark the old mill-wheel
Makes music, going round and round;
And dusty-white with flour and meal,
The miller whistles to its sound.
And if you listen to the rain
Where leaves and birds and bees are dumb,
You hear it pattering on the pane
Like Andrew beating on his drum.
The coals beneath the kettle croon,
And clap their hands and dance in glee;
And even the kettle hums a tune
To tell you when it’s time for tea.
The world is such a happy place
That children, whether big or small,
Should always have a smiling face,
And never, never sulk at all.
When music sounds, gone is the earth I know,
And all her lovely things even lovelier grow;
Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees
Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies.
When music sounds, out of the water rise
Naiads whose beauty dims my waking eyes,
Rapt in strange dreams burns each enchanted face,
With solemn echoing stirs their dwelling-place.
When music sounds, all that I was I am
Ere to this haunt of brooding dust I came;
And from Time’s woods break into distant song
The swift-winged hours, as I hasten along.
Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain-tops that freeze,
Bow themselves when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or, hearing, die.
Incorporate simple pleasures. Your routine should include things that make you happy – a cup of tea, a scented candle, background music. Little pleasures can relax you and improve your mood.
Note: I enjoy the first sip of coffee each morning. I’ve got in the habit of becoming aware of all of the flavors in the coffee. That first sip announces to my brain, “Ray, you’re going to have a great day!” Try it.
It’s good to hang out with friends and enjoy their companionship. Their viewpoints are often different from ours and hold the potential of helping us change our point of view. When we’re open to different points of view we create an environment for learning to take place. Openness goes beyond listening to different points of view. We might try listening to different genres of music, going to a culturally different restaurant, and watching different types of movies than we generally watch. The more open we become to different viewpoints and experiences, the more we become woven into the rich fabric of life.
I enjoy life. I enjoy being with people. I enjoy being alone. I enjoy going for a walk in nature. I enjoy being on busy city streets. I enjoy music playing. I enjoy silence. I don’t know how I came about this way of being. It’s nothing I studied. My parents weren’t this way. It just happened. I don’t think I was always this way. It happened. I’m always looking for something good to happen to me. It usually does but not always in the way I want it or in my timeframe. I think it’s important to look at life with happy eyes and a smile and arms wide open to catch the good things life is tossing at you,
